As a regular buyer of American products, I am being forced to look elsewhere for them. The ebay shipping program, which unboubtedly is easy for sellers, is prohibitively expensive for lower priced products. A small item is regularly charged at $50. This is more than double what I would charge for the same service, and Australia is The Most Expensive Postal Service in the World.
US sellers, if you want our business, wise up and post the item yourselves.
No, at present the GSP does not add any Customs charges to items worth less than $1000.
When you actually buy an item being shipped through the GSP you will receive a notification if there is a Customs charge and it will be added to the invoice.
Pitney Bowes then pays the charges on your behalf and you do not pay anything more when the item arrives.
If the item was valued at over $1000 then you would have paid Customs charges and duty. That would have been in the listing before you bought the item and it would have been on the invoice as a separate charge to the actual shipping costs.
The limits have been in force for many years....long before Pitney Bowes and the GSP came into being.
You are right about the parcels taking a Cooks Tour around the USA...and also about FedEx being paid for an economy service even thought it is supposed to be a premium service.
As much as most buyers hate the service you can hardly blame the sellers for using it as they are completely protected from bad feedback and star ratings by ebay as the service includes insurance and tracking.
Well it certainly was not a Customs charge.....there is nothing as low as that.
If PB charged me a fee for anything I would have jumped up and down....they charge enough for their services and postage without adding some fee that is not justified.
Thank you for dredging up an old thread, but as you have, I will reply to you. Sometimes it's just a matter of contacting the seller with a polite request. I saw 2 items 2 weeks ago from a seller in the US. I sent her a message saying I really wanted both and asked would she consider revising one of her listings to include both items otherwise GSP would charge me 2 shipping costs. I said that I would still be purchasing one of the listings regardless. A few hours later I got a message saying the listing had been revised, so I purchased.
Not once did I ask her to change the shipping method. I didn't want her to lose her protection. As it was, for what I was getting, the GSP cost wasn't as steep as one might think. It was a lot more than what I'd have paid to get it sent domestic in Australia, but I looked at the overall cost. I've seen a lot steeper costs for way smaller items.
As for a listing that has relisted 3 times with no bidders, as a seller, I don't care. I won't tolerate someone telling me I should sell it for less because it relisted 3 times with no bids. That will earn them a rapid invitation to my party list. I have had items relisting for quite a long time. Every now and then a buyer will come along and knock them out. Sellers know their items will sell when the right buyer comes along. It's no different for US sellers. If it takes 6 months or 3 years to sell, they don't care.
